Bearcreek will host special display

September 1, 2011

This display was in Swiss Days parade (Photo by Eric Mann)

Starting Friday and running through September 2-11, a free event called Midwest America Healing Field will be set up on the grounds of Bearcreek Farms in northern Jay County to remember the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and to pay tribute to all U.S. military and emergency services personnel and first responders, living and deceased.
An announcement said there will be several guest speakers, such as Guy Gruters, who was a prisoner of war for five years; Mike Ballone, an honorary firefighter with New York City Fire Department Ladder Company 20; and Robert Barrett, a retired member of Ladder Company 20. That ladder unit was involved in the September 11 incidents.
Ballone and Barrett will speak multiple times during the event at Bearcreek.
Scale models of the World Trade Center towers will be on display on September 9, 10, and 11, with a reading at 3 p.m. on Sunday, September 11, of the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed 10 years ago.
Also on display will be some 2,000 U.S. flags on poles that are eight feet tall.